Last night was the first installment of Ken Burns’ “American Revolution” series on PBS. It runs six consecutive nights at 8:00 PM, although it is rebroadcast at various times also.
It also can be watched online.
I watched and enjoyed the first part last night. Burns is very good at what he does, although he slants a bit leftward. For instance, last night there was a bit of obligatory guilt-tripping about the Native Americans and about slavery.
However, if you ignore that aspect, the series appears to be well done.
I was a bit surprised that the treatment almost was a bit sympathetic to the British point of view; and seemed to portray the Americans in New England as violent rabble-rousers. It will require further viewing to determine whether this series ultimately celebrates our nation, its history and its heritage. It certainly emphasizes the importance of the American Revolution in world history.
I taped it last night and watched this AM. The first installment was well done. The remaining 5 episodes should be worth watching. I hope we are not disappointed.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Fred. Burns is definitely effective at his craft even though there might be a certain, relatively small percentage of the content that might be disagreeable. I plan to watch the whole series also.
We’ve watched 3 episodes so far. It is woke, missing no opportunity to boost Indians and blacks, and make Whites seem guilty. They cannot acknowledge that in 1776, the entire world was very hierarchical (as it had been for thousands of years) and slavery was ubiquitous and just another step down from King, Duke, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Baronet, Gentleman, Yoeman, servant, indentured servant… Slavery wasn’t unique to America, and America is the one who got the process started of ending it. But with PBS you kind of expect that America hatred.
The subject itself is so good though, that when they get past the woke genuflecting and get down to it, it is worthwhile watching. And you have to appreciate that it was a massive undertaking, which I’m glad Burns tackled.
I agree, J. Sobran, but after having watched the entire series, I can’t help but think that Critical Theory was the basis for the messaging. It leaves the viewer questioning whether the entire American experiment has been worth it.
I just watched episode 5. The wording of everything touching on Indians is so prejudicial. They speak of Indians adopting a girl after they’d murdered her parents in wording that makes it sound like the Indians did something virtuous.
The ‘whites stole America from the Indians’ line needs to be answered. In 1492, N. America was very sparsely settled by stone age tribes (who hadn’t even adopted the wheel and couldn’t make cloth). European diseases wiped out a lot of that sparse population. So there was a lot of room for European colonists, and many Indians rightly perceived benefit to welcoming them.
For instance, the tribe that met the Pilgrims hoped for Pilgrim help against the abusive tribe that dominated them, which tribe I think was part of that “6 Nations” Iroquois confederacy that Ken Burns fawns over as the inventors of democracy. (Iroquois seems to be the old term for them; Burns used a complicated word starting with an H.)
Historians who’ve studied it have calculated how many Indians and whites were killed in cross-racial massacres between 1607 and 1890. Slightly more whites than Indians were killed in massacres. More Indians were killed in massacres by other Indian tribes during that period than by whites (although roughly comparable).
Burns avoids any mention that most Indian tribes took slaves, especially Cherokee and Creek. He has no interest apparently in being even handed.
Great points, J. Sobran.
I attended a performance at Elon University a few weeks ago. At the outset of the performance, there was a piped-in voice acknowledging that Elon’s facilities were on land that had once belonged to the Native Americans.
They did not propose to give back the land, however.